Tourism sector sees boom during May Day holiday
The nation's tourism market is expected to see its best post-COVID performance during the ongoing May Day holiday, said industry insiders, who added that it may also be a turning point in the recovery of the sector.
People take selfies at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, capital of China, April 29, 2023. The 5-day Labor Day holiday started on Saturday. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)
Early on Friday — the day before the holiday started — train tickets for departures from Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station to destinations nationwide were sold out.
Latest figures from China State Railway Group Company show that the railway system nationwide ran 12,064 passenger trains and handled 19.66 million trips in total on Saturday, both a record high. And travelers taking flights also registered a record high on Saturday of around 2.04 million, up 441.8 percent year-on-year, according to civil aviation authorities.
Tourism destinations were also overwhelmed by travelers. Shanghai's tourism authorities said that the city received over 3.06 million visits from tourists on Saturday.
"I've never imagined such a huge population of travelers. It really blew my mind," said Wang Yalu, a 32-year-old from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, who is enjoying her holiday in Sanya, a coastal city in Hainan province, for a four-day trip with her family. She said that she booked the trip a month ago. "It's a very good time to take a family trip, but the price is quite high. The trip cost us almost 20,000 yuan ($2,900)."
The Humble Administrator's Garden — a traditional Chinese garden and World Culture Heritage Site in Suzhou, Jiangsu province — received about 22,800 visits on Saturday. All tickets from Sunday to Tuesday had already been sold out as of Saturday, according to the garden's official website.
"It's expected that Chinese travelers will make over 240 million trips during the five-day holiday, a growth of around 104 percent compared with 2019 — before the epidemic hit," Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, said in a recent interview with China Central Television. Visits and trips will generate tourism-related revenue of over 120 billion yuan, around 83 percent of the tourism revenue earned during the same period in 2019, he added.
Overseas trips are also booming. According to figures from the National Immigration Administration, the average daily number of entries and exits from China's border ports is expected to exceed 1.2 million during the holiday, double the same period in the previous year and roughly 57 percent that in 2019.
Online travel portal Trip.com said in a recent report that its users have shown a strong desire for overseas travel during the holiday.
It said that as of April 20, searches for overseas flight tickets increased by 120 percent compared with the same period in 2019.
Related articles
Four people killed in a house explosion in southwestern Missouri
GOODHOPE, Mo. (AP) — Four people in rural Missouri died when an explosion that could be heard 10 mil2024-05-21Taijuan Walker makes a slick behind
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Taijuan Walker returned to the mound for the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday and ma2024-05-21Caitlyn Jenner, 74, and longtime gal pal Sophia Hutchins, 26, match up in black as they attend star
Caitlyn Jenner, 74, and her longtime live-in gal pal Sophia Hutchins, 26, attended the White House C2024-05-21Reese Witherspoon looks every bit glamorous supporting Big Little Lies co
Reese Witherspoon posed up a storm in a little black dress while supporting her Big Little Lies co-s2024-05-21Adams, Reyna, Turner, Ream are US concerns ahead of Copa America
NEW YORK (AP) — Tyler Adams, Gio Reyna, Matt Turner and Tim Ream will be given the three weeks ahead2024-05-21Crews to extinguish fire from train derailment near Arizona
LUPTON, Ariz. (AP) — Crews plan to extinguish a fire on Saturday night from a freight train derailme2024-05-21
atest comment